The ongoing global semiconductor shortage is causing this demand-supply gap. Samsung is unable to produce the new foldables in bulk because of this chip shortage issue. And as more people order the phones, the gap continues to widen. The report suggests that customers are having to wait up to a month for their orders to ship. This lengthy delay could put some potential customers off, thus causing a loss to Samsung. Some retailers are not even selling the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 due to supply shortages.
The chip shortage is so big that Samsung can’t supply enough Galaxy Z Fold 3, Flip 3 foldables
Some local analysts are also blaming Samsung for poor management. The company couldn’t forecast this overwhelming demand for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3, both of which bring numerous durability and functionality improvements over their respective predecessors, while also coming in at cheaper prices. The result of this price cut is that the new foldables have been in great demand since the pre-order days in August. The clamshell folding Galaxy Z Flip 3, in particular, has become the darling of every foldable enthusiast. Samsung reportedly received a whopping 920,000 pre-orders for the two foldables in South Korea. That’s more than 11 times the 80,000 pre-orders the company received for the galaxy Z Fold 2 last year. Even the conventional Galaxy S21 flagship series also attracted just about 300,000 customers during the pre-sale period. Quite clearly, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3 have sold like crazy from the beginning and Samsung needed to be prepared for it. Well, to be fair to the company, it was preparing for this very early. It realized that people are loving its new foldables, so much so that the company found it reasonable enough to cancel or at least postpone the Galaxy S21 FE. Since Samsung had limited chip stocks, it wanted to use them all in foldables. The company even canceled the Galaxy Note series this year in favor of the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3. However, despite all these sacrifices, Samsung is still failing to keep up with the demand for its new foldables. Such is the impact of the ongoing chip shortage issue. The Korean company wanted to make foldables mainstream devices and it has been largely able to do so this year. But, unfortunately, an unprecedented semiconductor shortage is playing spoilsport to Samsung’s ambitions. Hopefully, things will improve from here on so that the Korean company doesn’t miss out on any potential foldable customers due to delayed shipping.
